big data (2)

Amazon had 900 million visits Christmas 2014, 1.3 Christmas 2015, and have regularly cracked the 1 billion visitor mark every month this year (as of May 2016). Let that number sink in. That’s 3x the population of the United States. The giant of retail, Wal-Mart only has 240 million visits a month. Target? 140 million. Grainger (for you B2B manufacturers)? 7 million. And Amazon visitors are buying. Amazon holiday sales will likely be up 20-25% over Q4 last year. That’s a decade of double digit YoY holiday sales growth (in case anyone’s counting :) And its not just the US - we see this growth in UK, Europe, and Canada.

What's their secret? They key for any manufacturer or publisher to understand, is that Amazon’s success IS NOT simply due to the products Amazon buys and sells online. That’s only one part of it.

Any B2B manufacturer or publisher involved with public sector bidding and RFPs knows the model for finding these opportunities has dramatically changed over the last 5 years. The traditional methods of 'formal' postings in local papers or state publications has vanished. So too, has been the time honored tradition of keeping a 'bid list' to mail out formal documents.

Blame the economy and the web. All states now recognize a 'web posting' as a legitimate public posting that meets the fiduciary responsibilities of the city/town or state. While this makes it simpler to get the bid out, it creates a mess for those trying to find and respond.…